Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Price Up 1.1% – Here’s Why

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose 1.1% on Monday. The stock traded as high as $542.74 and last traded at $541.15. 18,028,736 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 47% from the average daily volume of 34,268,449 shares. The stock had previously closed at $535.07.

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft unveiled its third-generation Maia 300 AI processor and said it plans to begin production deployments in 2027, eventually scaling the Maia platform to multi-gigawatt deployments. Management says the system could deliver approximately 40% more AI-generated tokens per megawatt than leading GPU-based systems, potentially improving Azure’s margins and easing semiconductor supply constraints. Microsoft to rely more on homegrown AI chips, reducing dependence on Nvidia
• Positive Sentiment: The custom-chip strategy is being viewed as a direct effort to control AI infrastructure costs and improve cloud efficiency. Microsoft expects Maia to become its primary architecture for running AI models, strengthening the long-term investment case for Azure and helping explain the stock’s advance. Microsoft Unveils Maia 300 AI Chip
• Positive Sentiment: Recent bullish commentary highlights Azure growth, rising Copilot usage, a record backlog and Microsoft’s diversified enterprise-software base. Investors are also looking ahead to the October 28 earnings report, where Azure growth of roughly 44%–45% and elevated AI capital spending will be key tests. Microsoft Needs Azure to Keep Growing Faster Than 40%

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $615.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $610.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 30th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $579.84.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.1%

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $501.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $435.10. The company has a market cap of $4.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%. The business’s revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.65 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.83%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total value of $20,764,903.98. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 533,624 shares in the company, valued at $265,888,830.48. This represents a 7.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total transaction of $43,388,826.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 486,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,092,173.98. This represents a 15.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 143,009 shares of company stock worth $71,420,699 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 315,653,206 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $117,744,959,000 after purchasing an additional 8,944,917 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,073,486,000 after purchasing an additional 60,009,531 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,338,370,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 64,375,360 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $24,013,297,000 after purchasing an additional 543,172 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $18,306,443,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices, gaming products and business solutions. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the company is best known for the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office productivity software. Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and serves consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

Microsoft’s productivity and business offerings include Microsoft 365 applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, along with collaboration tools including Teams.